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Wednesday, April 9, 2014

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. So many authors out there seem to think if a reader gives a book anything less than 5 stars, it's a bad review. I don't get that AT ALL.

Let's look at how Goodreads describes each star rating:

5- It was amazing
4- Really liked it
3- Liked it
2- It was ok
1- Did not like it

And here is Amazon's:

5- I love it
4- I like it
3- It's okay
2- I don't like it
1- I hate it

So...what's so wrong with a 4? And on Goodreads, a 3 is lovely too. I only review on Goodreads, so I see nothing wrong with 4s and 3s. Amazon's system is a little different, so a 3 isn't really ideal there, but it's still not horrid.

Let's face it, I do not adore every book I read. No one does. If they gave every book a 5 they'd be lying. If I see a book listed on Amazon or Goodreads with all 5's, I am pretty positive the reviews are all friends and family. And we all know mommy isn't gonna give her baby's book a 1 or 2.

So if I give a book a 4, or even a 3, why is that so bad? A 4 is still really good. It means I really liked the book and had a lovely time reading it, even though I didn't want to kiss every word. And a 3 is pretty good too. It says that I liked it. Which is a hell of a lot better than not liking it. Maybe it just didn't give me quite as many warm fuzzies as other books have. Not every book will.

Very rarely do I even find a book so amazing it deserves the highest rating. Usually there has to be crying involved, either happy or sad. It has to leave me completely breathless and wanting to read again. I did a quick scroll through my Read folder on GR and there are 24 out of 141 with 5 star ratings. But some of those I know are not true 5s. They are authors I know and I was afraid they'd be mad if I gave a 4.

Of course I want good reviews of my books, but I never expect people to adore every word I write. And I sure don't want fake reviews. I've read it's actually far better for a review to have mixed star ratings, as long as there aren't many 1 and 2's.

I have always rated books on Goodreads with star ratings and a text review. I used to write my negative thoughts as well as positive, but once I became a published author, stopped the negative stuff. It's not my place to point that stuff out. So I would type a lovely review focusing only on the good things in the book, but the general star rating would reflect my overall thoughts. And 9 times out of 10, it was a 3 or higher. If I really didn't like something, I usually left the star rating blank and tried to write at least one positive thing in the text portion of the review. But now...after hearing how so many other writers think anything less than a 5 is horrid, I am afraid to give star ratings. I don't want my writer friends to think I hated their book because I gave it a 3 or 4. That is soooooo not the truth. So I guess I will go forward and leave the star ratings off.

This has been said So. Many. Times. But it needs repeating. This business is SO SUBJECTIVE! All art is, whether it be paintings, sculptures, music, movies, even fashion. People have different thoughts and opinions on all these things. And no two people will get the same thing out of the same book. And nobody's opinion is wrong.